Len Nichols Is Wrong: This Debate Is about Socialized Medicine

I am disappointed to hear the health reform conversation devolve once again into a contrived debate about a single payer, government-run health system. This is an old dispute about “socialized medicine” and one that has already been settled in the minds of a critical mass of policymakers.

A couple of things strike me about his post.

First, this debate is obviously about socialized medicine, and to argue anything else is absurd. We have a president who advocates single-payer. That president just held a health care summit to which he invited other single-payer advocates, but not a single free-market advocate. As I explain in this paper, all the bluster about “public-private partnerships” is an intellectually dishonest smokescreen. Nichols and other members of the Church of Universal Coverage hate the term “socialized medicine” not because it inaccurately describes their policies, but because it accurately describes their policies and rankles a large segment of the American public. Rather than adjust their policies, they are trying to convince the public that policies generally considered socialist really aren’t.

Second, this “old dispute” obviously has not been “settled in the minds of a critical mass of policymakers.” If that mass of opinion were truly critical, then (by definition) the fact that some are crying “socialized medicine” wouldn’t bother Nichols at all.

I think I’ll shoot my friend an email and invite him to speak at a Cato Institute policy forum where we can discuss whether President Obama is trying to move us closer to socialized medicine.